Why Batman V Superman (2016) Is A Masterpiece

agony. This was the first life he’s ever taken, and even though he did it to save an innocent family, he killed off the last known member of his race, leaving him all alone.

Characters Man of Steel gave us updated characterisation for these characters that we know and love, while still having them feel true to the source material that came years earlier. The characterisation of Superman in this film is influenced by how we see him in the graphic novel Superman Earth One, written by J Michael Straczynski and illustrated by Shane Davis. We see Clark conflicted about his place in the world, but recognizes it is his responsibility to protect it when invaders from his home world arrive. General Zod is a surprisingly compelling villain, since his only goal is to ensure the Survival of his Species, he does not fight for Power, Wealth, Glory or Control over the Universe, but he is acting out of desperation and motivated simply by Survival and Fear. This paints a picture of No Good Guys or Bad Guys, but simply two men who are convinced they are right and will do what they must for the survival of their loved ones. The character of Lois Lane is a significant improvement from her previous iterations in my eyes, in this film she is more than just Superman’s love interest, but she plays an important part in the story. We see her doing what she does best, investigative journalism, as she follows lead after lead and eventually deduces Superman’s Identity, and helps him save the world by sabotaging parts of the invading Kryptonian’s ship.

Aftermath The release of the movie caused a divide in the fanbase that would only be topped by the release of Batman V Superman 3 years later, but we’ll get to that in a while. There were many criticisms and complaints made against the movie’s portrayal of Superman as “Too Dark and Brooding”, This film showed us what it would be like if Superman existed in the real world, and because of that we saw a more introspective Superman in a film that dares ask “What Does it Mean to Be Human?’. A lot of the complaints I can see thrown this movie’s way is “iTs tOo dARk”, “SUpErmAn dOEs’nt sMIle”, “tHEres tOo MUch dEStrUcTIon”. Yes, the film does not have a fun and happy tone because it’s meant to be set in a realistic world. Superman does not smile often because the movie focuses on him becoming the man he’s meant to be (Not to mention there are several shots where he does smile, such as his First Flight, when he returns home to Smallville to see his mother and the very last shot where he joins the Daily Planet as a Reporter). The criticism of there being too much destruction in the climax is one of the dumbest nit-picks I have ever heard, you have an invading Alien Force arrive to re-establish their own race using your world, then you defeat most of them, leaving behind their vengeful leader who promises to destroy all humans, and you complain about city destruction, when the antagonist is doing what the antagonist is supposed to do. People ask why did Superman not move the fight to a less populated area, and the answer is, he did, he took Zod into space, and Zod took the fight back down to Earth, to purposefully cause as much damage as he could. Weirdly enough I’ve never heard this specific complaint laid against The Avengers film, but that movie is fun and made by Disney so I guess its Immune to criticism. To put it simply, a lot of People who disliked this movie went in to it expecting to see a new version of the bright and hopeful Christopher Reeve Superman movies, but found something that challenged their expectations instead of pandering to them. The fact of the matter is, this is not a Superman Story, it is a Kal-El Story.

Final Thoughts and Score As I say during every review, even if I consider something a Masterpiece, it is nigh impossible for any piece of art to be PERFECT. To be fair with myself and you the reader, I always give mention the flaws I think are present in a film or game I am reviewing, but after rewatching this film 3 times in preparation for this article, for the life of me I genuinely cannot name anything I dislike about this movie. The only thing I can possibly think of that can improve this film is making it longer with more flashback scenes to have even more character development for Clark, and maybe even more flashbacks of Zod, further developing his views in this desperate time as well as his relationship with Jor-El and his regret for murdering him.

My score for Man of Steel is a 9/10.

By: Emmanuel Naicker

Never in my life have I seen a movie break the internet as much as this film did, from the extremely mixed reactions of the casting news saying Ben Affleck would be taking up the Cowl of The Batman to appear alongside Henry Cavill’s Superman, to Jessie Eisenberg being set to star as Lex Luthor in a more unique take, and then the film dropped, and it broke the internet even more! As I said earlier, this film split the DC Fanbase even more than Man of Steel did, this movie is hated by many, as well as beloved by many, I obviously fall into the second camp. Batman V Superman is THE most Misunderstood and Unfairly Criticised film I have ever seen in my entire life. Although I do understand why the haters feel this way about it, but first we need to take a look at the story.

Story Batman V Superman Dawn of Justice opens with a poem read by Bruce Wayne that goes: There was a Time Above, A Time Before, There Were Perfect Things, Diamond Absolutes, but Things Fall, things on Earth, And what Falls Is Fallen. These words play over the image of a CGI Maple Leaf that falls as we fade in to see the Coffins of Thomas and Martha Wayne being taken to their burial crypt. We then see a flashback of the night the Waynes got killed, in a Hauntingly Beautiful scene shot with slow motion combined with the Heavy Emotional musical score from Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL. This intercuts with the funeral, and young Bruce running off into the woods, as he trips and falls down a cave, where he sees what looks like hundreds of bats on the cave sealing. They swarm around him, and they carry him up into the light as the music swells, as Young Bruce is taken into the light and the entire screen fades to white, we hear his older voice again, saying: In the dream, they took me to the Light, A Beautiful Lie. And on the full white screen, black text slowly fades in, that almost looks as if it’s the introduction page in a History Book, with the text reading Metropolis: Mankind is Introduced to The Superman. of Steel, during the Kryptonian Invasion, only this time everything is seen from Bruce Wayne’s point of view as he rushes through the city and destruction to rescue his employee and friend from the chaos, to whom he doesn’t make it to in time. We see the massive amount of destruction happening as these aliens with godly power fight, killing humans in their wake. Bruce arrives on the street of the building he owned just to see General Zod’s heat vision melt right through it, brining the building crumbling down, and Bruce runs straight towards it as the dust eclipses the screen, he goes through the rubble trying to find any survivors, and he finds one of his employees trapped under rubble, they manage to free him, only to see his legs are broken and require amputation. While trying to find more survivors, Bruce saves a young girl from being crushed under falling debris, he tries to comfort her and tell her it’s ok, he asks here where her mother is, and the little girl with tears in her eyes, points up to the building destroyed by General Zod’s heat vison. Then he hears the sonic boom of Superman and Zod re-entering the Earth’s Atmosphere as they fight their way back down. We cut to see Bruce looking up at them flying, with nothing but anger in his eyes.

The next scene takes place in present day, we see a fishing expedition led by the employees of Lex Luthor, in the Indian ocean, near the wrecks of one of the Kryptonian ships, divers venture into the deep and pull out debris from the floorbed, and we see a large chunk of glowing green Kryptonite. We immediately cut to Lois Lane and photographer Jimmy Olden on their way to Interview an African Warlord, guarded by private security contractors, only for Lois to find out that Olsen is a CIA Agent, tracking the Warlord, Jimmy is killed and Lois is taken Hostage by the Warlord. The CIA commanders seeing Olsen has been killed, authorises a drone strike on the village, just before the rocket hits the village, Superman flies straight through it, also destroying the drone in the process. Superman goes to rescue Lois but meanwhile the warlord’s private security starts killing innocent villagers. They round up all their

We see an African woman giving her testimony of the death and destruction she saw in her home at the United States Capitol. Believing that Superman was the cause of the massacre at the village, the United States Government issues a challenge to Superman, arrive at the US Capitol to be held accountable for his actions and motives, and to hold open discussion on his ability to act unilaterally. Meanwhile we see Batman capturing a human trafficker and leaving him tied up for the cops, only for them to find a Bat Symbol burned on to the criminal’s chest, being branded by Batman. As he returns to the Batcave we see investigating an elusive figure called the White Portuguese, with one of the pictures on his computer screen being the leader of the private security contractors, who we’ll call The Russian that killed the villagers and framed Superman in the African Village. Seeing this as his only lead he decides he must investigate further.

We have a scene Lois sitting in her and Clarks apartment, going through her things , then she finds a bullet lodged in her notebook that she used in Africa, she pulls out the bullet and decided to investigate it.

We then cut to a dark dirty room with the sound of tape being torn, as the camera pans we see the same Wayne employee who lost his legs during Superman and Zod’s battle, dressed in old raggedy clothes in a wheelchair, we see him go up on a statue of Superman in the Metropolis Park and spray paint “False God” on the statue before getting arrested. Once he’s in police custody, we also see the human trafficker with the Bat brand on his chest, moved from Gotham Prison to Metropolis out of fear as the Bat brand is essentially a death sentence. Bruce Wayne tracks down and finds The Russian in an underground fight club, and manages to hack his phone. He’s able to uncover a data stream being fed from The Russian’s phone straight to the home of Lex Luthor.

Bruce and Alfred debate the viability of Batman infiltrating Lex Luthor’s home to obtain the data, Alfred said that won’t be necessary as Bruce Wayne has been invited to a party at Lex’s home. During the party we can hear a rendition of the song Night and Day. Among all the guests you can see US Senators, The Russian and a mysterious woman in a red dress, who we later find out is Diana Prince, Wonder Woman. When Bruce arrives at the party, we see Clark Kent there reporting for the Daily Planet, and for the first time ever, we see Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne on screen together in the same movie. A scene plays out where Lex Luthor introduces the two before leaving them to have a quick conversation about Batman and Superman and their necessity before Lex delivers a speech about power and knowledge. During Lex’s speech, Alfred communicates with Bruce via his earpiece and tells him where to go to extract data from the house, and with his enhanced senses, Clark hears this and figures out that Bruce is The Batman. Clark follows Bruce downstairs to try and confront him but sees a disaster being covered on the news before he decides to fly off and save lives. Bruce goes to retrieve his hacking device just to find out it was stolen by Diana.

From there we cut to a montage of Superman saving lives all around the world being crosscut with political commentators and debaters, along with the legendary Neil Degrasse Tyson discussing Superman’s action, his motives, and even the importance of humanity in the grander scale of the universe now that they have concrete evidence that other intelligent extraterrestrial life exists. In my opinion, this montage is very important to the film, because it shows us the scepticism and mistrust that is felt by the people, especially in a post 9-11 world.

We then cut to the Metropolis Prison, where we see The Russian pay off an inmate to stab the Human Trafficker Criminal with the Bat Brand on his chest. Right after we see the disabled Wayne employee get bailed out, only to find Lex Luthor waiting for him in his home with a brand new Automatic Wheelchair. We then see the Disabled Wayne Employee go to the US Capitol and say he will also testify against Superman. We see Lois track down a military officer she met in Man of Steel and he takes the bullet from her to run analysis.

In the next scene, we see Bruce Wayne meet Diana Prince in a Museum to take his hacking device back, he goes back to the Batcave to start decrypting the drive. From there we are thrown into a Nightmare Sequence, in a post apocalyptic

desert looking city, with the bay of water that separated it from Metropolis completely evaporated. We see Batman wearing a heavy trench coat, holding a machine gun with a Joker Card tapped to its stock. He looks through his binoculars to see an armoured convoy come his way. He meets with one of the members of the convoy, to ask if they successfully stole a hunk of Kryptonite, only for it to be a double cross. We see soldiers in black uniforms with Superman’s Crest on their shoulders killing Batman’s allies, from there we see Batman retaliating, fighting back as hard as he can, and doing the unthinkable, Batman uses a gun, while fighting off many more soldiers we see insectoid like creatures flying down from the sky and carrying away people away before one ones down and knocks batman out. He awakens to find himself in a prison room with two of his allies, before Superman flies and kills the both of them with his heat vision. Superman pulls off Bruce’s mask and says: “She was my World, and you took her from me.” He punches Bruce through the chest as he screams in pain, only to wake up to see the Flash, travelling through time to warn him, screaming out: “Bruce, listen to me know, its Lois Lane, She is the Key.” We see a look of shock on The Flash’s face as he realised he is too soon. He then says: “We were right about Him, you’ve always been right about him, Fear Him. Find Us Bruce! You Have to Find Us!”

After The Flash disappears, he sees the Decryption is complete, he searches the drive, and discovers that the White Portuguese is a ship. Here we have an important conversation that shows us Bruce’s current mental state. Bruce tells Alfred that the ship is carrying a large piece of Kryptonite and he intends to steal it from Lex Luthor, Alfred says it will be good to keep it out of Luthor’s hands and to destroy it. Bruce disagrees, and tells Alfred he intends to use it to kill Superman. Alfred tries to change Bruce’s mind by telling him that Superman is not an Enemy. Bruce doesn’t listen, stubborn and set on his ways, he says: “He has the Power to Wipe Out the entire Human Race, and if there is even a 1 % chance that he is our enemy, we have to take it as an Absolute Certainty. 20 Years in Gotham, what did that bring us? How many Good Guys are left? How many stayed that way?” This conversation is essential to the story, showing us that this is an old, jaded Batman who has been through hell, and is now consumed by paranoia and wrath. He is about to abandon his No Killing rule for what is a righteous cause in his mind, to prevent the possible death of billions more. We then see Clark Kent, at his desk at the Daily Planet get delivered an envelope of pictures, showing the dead Human Trafficker with the Bat Brand on his Chest. With words written in Red Ink on every page, Judge, Jury, Executioner, visibly shocking him.

From there we are treated to an excellent chase sequence as Batman in his Batmobile peruses the Russian and his mercenaries as they are escorting the Kryptonite. We witness shocking violence of Batman mercilessly running through cars and criminals tying to get to the front truck carrying the green mineral. Only for him to turn the corner and see Superman waiting, the Batmobile rams into superman, and veers off the road, not moving Superman an inch. Superman tears open the doors of the Batmobile and tells him to stop being a vigilante or face the consequences. Batman replies by saying: “Tell me, Do You Bleed? You Will!” Batman makes it back the Batcave in a damaged Batmobile, to see a tracker he placed on the lead vehicle, delivering the kryptonite to Lexcorp.

The next scene is us seeing the African Woman on the bus on her way home, only for her to see The Russian waiting outside, wanting to tie up loose ends. She then goes to the US Capitol on the morning of the hearing, to tell one of the senators the truth that she was paid and threatened by Lex Luthor to lie and give a false testimony against Superman. We cut to see Lois meeting with the Military Officer who informs her that the bullet was made from an artificial metal produced by Lex Luthor. It is at that moment she realises Lex Luthor knows Superman’s Identity, and arranged for him to be framed in the village and he knew Lois was set to conduct her interview with the warlord, knowing that Superman would drop out of the sky to save her. On her way to the hearing, Lois walks past the African Woman, for us to start following her as she is tailed by The Russian. The African Woman is then pushed onto the subway tracks by The Russian and killed. Superman arrives at the US Capitol and enters the building. In the room where the hearing is being held, we see the disabled Wayne employee. This scene is cross cut with us seeing Bruce Wayne in his office, he sees his ex-employee and asks why

he has not been getting his monthly disability cheque, only for him to see the cheques have been returned with writing in red on them. Superman then enters the room as the Senator addresses him. The senator stops mid sentence as we see an empty chair was is reserved for Lex Luthor. Then the disabled Wayne dmployee’s wheelchair explodes in a massive burst that is felt throughout the building.

Superman is physically unharmed by this but has a look of immense pain and grief on his face. We see him help bring survivors out of the rubble before flying away. We then cut to Lex Luthor on this way to LexCorp to find out that Batman has stolen the Kryptonite. Lex then decides to take the dead body of General Zod to the Kryptonian Ship, and put him into the Genesis Chamber, to mutate his body into a Living Weapon as a last resort to kill Superman. We are then treated to a training montage of Bruce preparing to face Superman, we see him crafting Kryptonite Gas Grenades and using a laser to sharpen the hunk of Kryptonite into the shape of a Spear.

In the wake of the Capitol bombing, the people who are unsure of what happened in the building, think Superman might have been responsible for the attack, or at least a co-conspirator, news footage of protests are shown, where civilians burn superman figures in anger. Lois continues her investigation and discovers that the bullet from Africa and the disabled Wayne employee’s wheelchair were made of the same metal, and it was lined with lead so Superman couldn’t see the bomb. We have one final discussion between Bruce and Alfred, in the burnt ruins of Wayne Manor, as they talk about his choice to kill Superman. Bruce shows us more of his negative point of view, saying: “Criminals are like Weeds, pull them out and another will grow in its place, this is about the future of the world. The first generation of Waynes made their fortune trading pelts and skins with the French, They Were Hunters.” For Alfred to give a fitting response: “So Falls the House of Wayne.”

From there we see Batman in his heavy metal suit ready to fight superman, as he puts the Kryptonite Spear in the ground and lights the signal to attract Superman. Right after that we see Superman’s adoptive mother kidnapped by Lex Luthor’s thugs, and right after that Lois Lane is kidnapped by the Russian. Lois is brought to the helipad of the LexCorp building and is confronted by Luthor. She tells him she figured out what he’s done by framing Superman, he then pushes her off the roof to get Superman’s attention, he catches her and leaves her safely on the ground before flying up to confront Luthor. It is revealed that Lex Luthor figured out Superman and Batman’s secret identities and has been playing them against each other since the beginning, orchestrating the incident in Africa as well as using the disabled ex Wayne employee and the Capitol bombing to help push Batman over the edge. Lex gives Superman an ultimatum, either he goes to Gotham City and kills Batman, ruining his reputation with the people of earth permanently or his mother dies, Luthor reveals he does not know where she is being held and he has given Superman less than 1 hour to kill Batman. Lex delivers a line that tells you everything you need to know: “If God is All Powerful, He Cannot be All Good, and if he is All Good, then he Cannot be All Powerful.” Superman flies back down to Lois to tell her about the situation before flying off to Gotham. In the background, the Kryptonian Ship charges and drains power from the city as Zod’s body mutates. Superman finds Batman and pleas with him to listen to what he has to say, that Lex Luthor has kidnapped his mother, but Bruce doesn’t listen and he uses remote control machine guns and sonic disruptors against Superman. Realising that Batman won’t listen to reason, Superman decides to throw him around to put some sense into Batman, while holding back and making sure not to hurt or kill him as he tells Batman to stay down ,and if he wanted it, he’d be dead already. Batman then shoots a Kryptonite Gas grenade at Superman with it exploding in his face. There Superman feels Pain for the first time. The fight continues with Batman trying to move Superman closer towards to Kryptonite Spear, using another one of his Kryptonite Gas Grenades in the process and also literally hitting Superman with a bathroom sink. Meanwhile as the fight is going on, Lois Lane gets on a helicopter and heads towards Gotham where the fight ensues.

After Superman is beaten and lying on the Floor, Batman pulls Superman towards to spear teling him: “I bet Your Parents taught you that you mean something, that you’re here for a reason. My Parents taught me a Different Lesson, Dying in the Gutter, for no reason at all. They taught

me the World only makes sense, if you Force it to.” reaches for the Spear, he puts his foot on Superman’s neck, and cuts his face before telling him: “You were Never a God...You were Never even a Man.” At this point we see the single most misunderstood moment in Cinematic History, Superman knowing he is about to die says: “You’re letting him Kill Martha, Find Him, Save Martha.” Right after that we see a very quick flashback montage of Bruce’s Parents getting killed in the ally and his father’s last word, accompanied by the emotional music of Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL before Bruce screams and asks why he said that name. Batman continues asking him why he said that name just for Lois to arrive and say it’s his mother’s name. The majority of people saw this and thought that they had stopped fighting just because their mothers share the same first name, without thinking of the subtext and what it meant. The reason Batman stopped is because he knew at that time, he was about to take a son away from a mother by breaking his no killing rule, he saw Superman’s last act was begging for his mother’s life and not his own, at that moment he realised Superman wasn’t a faceless alien but instead he was raised as a human by a human, and he was about to become Joe Chill and break up a family. Batman helps Superman get up and we see a tear flow down Bruce’s face and he makes Superman a promise that he’ll save his mother from Luthor’s Thugs. Before the next scene, Lois Lane gets rid of the Kryptonite Spear and throws it into a deep pit of water in the abandoned site they were fighting in. We are then treated to what is probably the best fight scene in all of comic book movie history as Batman fights his way through 2 dozen thugs in an effort to save Martha, with fight choreography ripped right out of Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham Games and saves her by blowing up the flamethrower used by The Russian.

In the next scene, Superman flies to the crashed Kryptonian ship to confront Lex Luthor, Lex notices Superman did not kill Batman and orders his thugs to kill Martha, only to hear Batman’s voice on the other end. Because of this, Lex unleashes his last resort as we see the body of general Zod mutated and resurrected in the form of Doomsday. The monsters first act was to kill Lex by throwing a punch at him, just before its fist is caught by Superman. The fight is taken into the city, we see the raw power of this beast and the destruction it is causing, Diana sees the destruction on the news. Superman then does the most logical move, he takes Doomsday into space, once they are high enough, the US Government decided to launch a Nuclear Warhead at them in an attempt to kill the monster, while acknowledging that Superman might be collateral damage. They launch the Nuke and it impacts, making the night sky glow bright yellow, Doomsday comes crashing back down to Earth, only stronger having absorbed energy from the blast, Supermans’s body floats in space, absorbing Sunlight to make a recovery. Batman sees Doomsday and realises that it’s a Kryptonian Beast and only Kryptonite Weapons can kill it. Batman draws Doomsdays attention towards him to lead him back to the port where he and Superman fought, to lead Doomsday back to the Kryptonite Spear. Doomsday, who can fire heat rays from his eyes and mouth, damages the Batplane, causing it to crash. He charges up another blast to kill Batman, right before Diana, dressed in her full Wonder Woman attire, swoops down and saves Batman by blocking the blast with her magical shield. Superman, revitalised by the sun, flies back down to Earth to join the fight, and now for the first time ever, we see The Trinity... Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman on screen together in the same movie.

The fight scene that follows is a glorious action set piece where we see Superman and Wonder Woman going full force against Doomsday, with Batman working as a distraction to help split up the monsters attention. Seeing and hearing the destruction, while remembering the electrical surges from the Kryptonian Ship, Lois Lane put two and two together and realises that Doomsday is of Kryptonian Origin, she then races back to the spear to retrieve it but the shockwaves of the destruction cause the building to cave in, trapping Lois underwater with rubble above the surface, leaving no room for her to push out. During the fight Superman and Doomsday lock in a clash of Heatvision, with Doomsday overwhelming Superman and pushing him back, Wonder Woman steps in and cuts off Doomsdays right hand using her magic sword, for us to see a sharp bone growing out of Doomsdays wound. Superman gets ready to lunge at Doomsday again just for his super hearing to pick up Lois trying to free herself, he saves her, and the dives into the water to retrieve the spear.

Doomsday, Superman emerges from the water holding the spear, visibly weak. Wonder Woman tried to subdue Doomsday with her Lasso of Truth, Superman looks at Lois, and he tells her that she is his world, before flying at Doomsday, Kryptonite Spear in hand. Wonder Woman struggles to contain Doomsday but is then assisted by Batman, firing his last Kryptonite Gas Grenade at the beast weakening him for Superman to fly at the monster and pierce his chest with the spear. Doomsday screams in pain, and breaks out of the lasso’s hold, he grabs Superman with his left hand and stabs him through the heart with the protruding bone on its right arm, killing Superman as Clark lets out a loud shout. The dust settles and we see the lifeless body of Superman being held in the hand of Doomsday. We have a quick scene of a SWAT Team entering the Kryptonian Ship to find Lex Luthor communicating with one of the New Gods, Steppenwolf, setting up the next film.

We proceed to see a grand public funeral for Superman, in the style of JFK’s Funeral, intercut with the funeral of Clark Kent in Smallville, Bruce talks with Diana and tells her: “I failed him in Life; I won’t fail him in Death. Men Are Still Good.” Lois drops a handful of dirt on Clark’s coffin, as we see the dirt rise for a split second before we cut to black.

My Thoughts Yeah, so that was a lot to take in, I personally love this film, because of all the complex questions it raised about the nature of humanity and morality, and the fact that this is a new unique story that we have not seen in the comics before, while still taking inspiration from several different stories. As I said earlier, This film is THE most Misunderstood and Unfairly Criticized film I have seen in my entire life. And I’d like to take some time to address some of those criticisms as I feel a lot of them are invalid when you start thinking of the movie.

Before we address those, we need to talk about the most important factor as to why this movie was first received so poorly, and that is all the fault of Warner Brothers. Not everything I described to you in the above story section was in the film that was seen in theatres. Warner Brothers gave Snyder a mandate that his film be 2.5 Hours long in the cinema, but the film was 3 hours when completed, so Snyder had no choice but to allow 30 minutes of this film to get cut out, and these weren’t just action sequences, but important plot points. Sections such as the CIA Drone Strike, and The Russians mercenaries killing African civilians to frame Superman was cut out of the movie, as well as finding out the testimony from the African Woman was lie. The Russian organizing the branded human trafficker to be killed was cut from the film, as was Clark Kents investigation into the Batman, and Lex communicating with Steppenwolf. Having all of these moments cut out led to plot holes and jarring leaps in logic appearing in the theatrical version of the film. I watched this movie in the theatre in 2016, and I was underwhelmed by it, but when the film was released on Blu-Ray we received a Director’s Cut that kept all the cut out footage brining the film to a solid 3 Hour runtime with all the plot holes erases, providing a much better story. And it was only after this Blu-Ray Directors Cut was released that people started to see this movie for how amazing it really is and truly appreciate it. Cutting out half an hour of PLOT from your film and expecting it to still be as good is quite simply a nonsensical decision made by the Warner Executives.

Character

The development of Superman as a character continues in this film directly from Man of Steel. Where that movie was about him revealing himself to the world, this film is about him trying to find acceptance in this paranoid, conflicted world. He cannot be that smiling, bright Christopher Reeve clone, not yet. What Snyder was showing us is the journey Superman had to take to become that optimistic beacon of hope we all want him to be. His entire story is about growth. He does the right thing without ever being asked to and the people of the world still do not trust him no matter how much he wants them to, which makes sense as his very existence changes everything, and shakes the basis of people’s faith. There are those who complained saying Superman should’ve given the spear to Batman or Wonder Woman so he wouldn’t die. Is sacrificing himself to save the world not the heroic thing Superman should do? The beast came from his world, it’s his responsibility, was it not? In this film we saw Superman take on the ultimate journey that is faced by humans, our own mortality. And if anyone thinks he was killed too early, well I’m not